By JIMMY D / Point-shaving ref a concern for fantasy GMs? | Jimmy's archive

By now, the fact that an NBA ref is suspected of influencing the scores of games for betting purposes is old news.

Tim Donaghy is expected to turn himself in this week amid reports that he wagered on games he officiated and that he was involved in point shaving to help gambling associates (apparently after he got in debt to them and they insisted on re-payment).

Point-shaving scandals have popped up occasionally in American sport (mainly in college hoops and football where students can sometimes fall prey to slimey characters).

It is not the same as ‘rigging’ games (as has been seen in European soccer where a goalie may let in a weak goal to secure a draw or a loss – whatever betting option his associated have wagered heavily on for that game).

Point shaving is knowing that the Spurs are favored by 7.5 points and, with that in mind, making plays or calls that keep the score on the desired side of that line. If they bet the Spurs to cover, maybe the ref calls a few extra fouls on the opposing team or helps get that team’s star player in early foul trouble – with some questionable calls - to ensure a large margin of victory.

But enough about the mechanics of the misdeed. First, should fantasy GMs be worried about it? And second, is there a solution that might mitigate it happening in the future?

First, we have all bemoaned bad calls on our fantasy players, cursing the ref for sending Kobe Bryant to the bench with three early fouls. We needed 35 points from him tonight – now we’ll be lucky to get 25.

Now imagine wondering everytime this happens if one of the players or one of the refs has a reason for playing or officiating a certain way. It would take a lot of the fun out of fantasy sticking a crooked reality in the middle of it.

Second, the way to guard against it is to legalize and regulate online sports gambling as countries like the UK have done. How does legalizing sports betting help prevent sports betting? Jimmy, we know you are in favour of sports betting, but give your head a shake.

It goes like this. Whatever untoward betting was happening in this NBA case was not happening at Vegas sportsbooks. They are too well-connected, too computerized, too regulated and too vigilant to not notice funny business that costs them money.

The questionable bets happened with a street-level bookie or an online sportsbook. Offshore shops have the technology to detect any type of unusual betting patterns or sudden large bets from new customers.

For example, in 2003, Bodog.com helped CBS identify shenanigans by alerting the TV station that several employees had been wagering – and winning – on betting of Survivor 4. Some workers who knew which two players would get kicked off the island on that night’s show were able to set up accounts and bet. And win.

And Bodog security folks noticed – identifying the location of their computers - and alerted CBS.

Ditto in the European Union, where soccer’s governing body UEFA signed a deal in 2005 to work with the world’s largest betting exchange – Betfair.com – to help them monitor unusual betting on soccer matches. That’s right – the leagues work with the sportsbooks to help keep the sport clean of match fixing and point shaving.

“We are happy that we have reached this agreement with Betfair, as it is an important step forward in ensuring the continued integrity of our competitions. This is in line with our permanent efforts to protect the game from match-fixing and will facilitate the gathering of information in case of suspicious results,” said UEFA boss Lars-Christer Olsson.

In North America, bookmaking is illegal, so sportsbooks have set up shop offshore to cater to Canadians and Americans. Since the leagues and the governments view these bookmakers as bad guys, they don’t receive that betting-pattern information that the leagues could use to thwart the real bad guys – the criminals trying to strong-arm players or refs into point shaving.

This forces money into criminal hands and taints the sport.
Why do folks bet with a corner bookie (sometimes the domain of organized crime?) Because they like to bet on sports and they don’t live in Nevada and they can’t get money to an overseas or offshore sportsbook. If online shops were legal, upstanding, regulated and taxed, folks could bet legally with a safe place. It would be a step forward from the ProLine style of sports wagering permitted in Canada.

The street-level bookie – the dude who might be inclined to bust your knees if you welch on a bet – would become a thing of the past.

It all seems so simple, but the leagues, anti-gambling groups and conservatives are powerful political forces against any change they say would make the situation worse.

So expect the leagues to do little more than threaten players with fines and beg fans to not bet. And then to be all aghast and astonished the next time some player or ref or coach or water boy gets into some money trouble and has no choice but to shave a few points here and there to get out of hawk.

Baseball fix? Please?

What Jimmy needs more than anything is a few umpires to rig the strike zone for his dreadful fantasy starters. And maybe help Johnny Damon swing the bat.
Damon’s 0-for-17 streak last week finally exhausted Jimmy’s patience.

He was already cursing his decision to keep Damon in the lineup instead of farm-team member Chris Duncan (dual-eligibility Cardinal available in many leagues).
And as two new challengers creep closer to Jimmy atop his baseball league, he returns to his once-successful pattern of picking up decent two-start pitcher free agents and dumping back his weaker one-start chuckers.

He plucked converted reliever Chad Billingsley from the Dodgers and dumped Chisox righty Jon Garland (who got rocked again Sunday).
Stay busy, stay lucky.

Jimmy D